The time to celebrate methods has come and this year we have chosen to devote our end of year special feature to Optogenetics.

While neuroscientists will hardly need any introduction to this booming technology, recent developments have shown that this technique can go beyond controlling the activity of neurons in the brain and has the potential to open new avenues of experimentation across multiple other biological fields as well.

The term optogenetics was only coined 4 years ago but the technology has already matured to the point that it is having a substantial impact on basic biological research. Because of the transformative effect that it has already had in neuroscience studies and the excitement of its future prospects in other fields, it’s nomination as Method of the Year has not been a difficult one.

You can read more about this choice in the editorial of our January issue and access all the content of our special issue here.

We hope that you will share our excitement for this technology and we welcome any comments on our selection!